When We Collide, We Come Together
by PLLCanada
Summary: ABANDONED - Set after the events of 2x17, by a prompt for Brittana comfort. Don't really know where it's going just yet, so input would be nice. - Brittany isn't stupid, but Santana seems to be the only one who knows that.
1. It's You And Me 'Till The End Of Time

**A/N: Based off of a prompt from Tumblr, so this is what I cam up with for "Brittana comfort".**

**This will be multiple chapters, so if you have something that you'd like to see happen, by all means comment or message me and I'd be happy to include it (as long as it isn't too absurd).**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>The next day everyone was back in the choir room, happier than ever. The glee club managed to raise enough money to send Brittany, Artie, Tina and Mike to Detroit and they even won. Everyone was happy, except for Santana, but not for the usual -why the hell is Brittany into Artie- reason, but because she was in total disbelief. Mr. Schuester basically called Brittany stupid in front of the entire New Directions and no one, not even McCripples defended her.<p>

She would've said something, had she not been so terrified of people jumping to conclusions. Sure, she'd defended her before, but that's when they were inseparable and both single, but now things were different. Brittany was with Artie, her boyfriend and aren't boyfriends supposed to be chivalrous or some shit like that?

Whatever, Santana knew she had to do something about it and she had to do it soon.

Once glee club -which had mostly been filled with Mr. Schue crying on the inside- was over, Santana made her move. If she wasn't going to be with Brittany, she was going to make sure that that stupid kid, that Brittany called her boyfriend, knew how to treat that blonde goddess right.

Santana made sure that Artie was alone, before cornering him at the end of the hallway.

"Are you fucking stupid or something?" Santana hissed at him, pushing his wheelchair against a row of lockers.

"What the hell are you talking about? Let me go!" He yelled back, trying to wheel his way out of the situation.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" She spat back, looking him dead in the eye. He gave her a confused look, before she continued. "You have no idea how lucky you are to have Britt as your girlfriend and you don't even have the decency to defend her?"

"Defend her from what?" Artie replied, clearly clueless to how she'd been treated before.

"Do you just let everyone insult her and say nothing?" She said, pointing straight at his face.

"Who insulted her?" He asked innocently.

"Okay… So you are stupid." She returned, almost at a loss for words. "Brittany is not stupid, okay? In fact, she's probably the most brilliant person I've ever met. Sure, she may not be book smart, but the way her mind works in so many incredible ways is amazing." Realizing she was starting to ramble, she quickly turned it back to the kid in front of her. "So as her boyfriend, you're supposed to defend her and since your physical abilities are limited to thumb wrestling, you should do everything you can to defend her when it comes to ass holes calling her names… You got it?"

"Fine, I will! I promise!" He was clearly starting to panic with Santana still pinning him to the lockers. "Just please… please let me go!" He added, nearly in tears.

Santana removed her hands from his chair and backed up. He sped away immediately, nearly slamming into a few lockers as he did.

"I hope you learned your lesson!" Santana yelled down the hall at Artie who was nearing the opposite end. "Cause I'll be watching." Santana finished, before she turned to walk out to the student parking lot.

Brittany had the same after school routine everyday, so Santana knew she would find her out there by her car. She walked out the doors in a completely different attitude then she'd had only a minute earlier.

Hands in her jean's pockets, shoulders slumped and head down, Santana made her way over to her (former?) best friend.

"Hey." Santana mumbled, only a few feet away from the blonde girl.

Brittany hadn't expected to see anyone, never mind actually have anyone come over to talk to her, so the gentle voice made her jump a little.

"Hi." She managed to return once she saw who it was. "What are you still doing here? Glee club ended, like, ten minutes ago."

"I just wanted to see if you were okay?" Santana replied honestly.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Brittany crossed her arms in a defensive stance, as if she were hiding something.

"I don't know…" Santana looked down at her feet as if they held the answer. "You just seemed kind of… sad today."

"I'm fine." Brittany defended.

Santana and Brittany had always been close and that closeness had given them what could only be described as a sixth sense. They both had the ability to tell when the other were sad or hiding something. So today, when she'd appeared so happy to everyone else, Santana knew that she wasn't and even though their relationship had been strained since her confession, she wasn't going to just let her suffer.

"Come on Britt, you know I can tell when something's wrong." Santana returned, looking up into beautiful blue eyes.

"Well if you're so smart, why don't you just tell me what's wrong?" Brittany returned the look Santana was giving her, but with obvious intensity.

Santana didn't want to, but she knew it'd probably be the only way Brittany would open up to her. So she did what she was asked.

"The other day… when everyone found out about the decathlon thing… and Mr. Schue made that comment about understanding why Mike, Tina and Artie were in it… but not you." Santana managed to reply; stopping several times to make sure Brittany was on the same page.

"I didn't even hear him say that." Brittany lied.

"Britt… I know you heard him because I saw the look on your face… and I know that it gets to you when people say things like that about y-" Brittany jumped in once she'd heard enough.

"You don't know how my brain works." She shot back, taking a step forward.

"You're right, I don't… but I do know you and I know how easily you get hurt."

"I can stand up for myself." Brittany grumbled, bowing down her head, just like Santana had just a moment before.

"I never said you couldn't." Santana took a step forward like Brittany had, but only in a more gentle way. Before she reached out to lift Brittany's chin, so they made eye contact once again. The taller girl didn't resist, instead she look through her slightly damp eyes, into Santana's. "You're probably one of the strongest people I know… and not just in muscles." Santana chuckled using her free hand to rub Brittany's bicep.

"Whenever I was sad in the past, you were there for me." Santana slowly inched closer. "When Sue used to call either of us names, you were always quick to defend either of our reputations. Even if it meant you'd be at the bottom of the pyramid and running laps for the entire practice." Santana slid her hand down from Brittany's bicep to find her hand. "You're strong, smart, talented… and absolutely beautiful." Santana was only a few inches from Brittany, when she managed to say the last part.

Brittany removed her hand from Santana's and enveloped her in a full hug. "You're all of those things too, you know?" She whispered into the brunette's ear.

Santana knew one of those adjectives didn't really apply to her, but she couldn't manage to say anything. Instead she just held Brittany tighter, trying to get everything out of this hug that she could.

It lasted a moment or two, but eventually they broke out of the hug and just stood there, eyes locked, hands intertwined and with at least Santana still flooded with emotions.

"You're still my best friend, you know?" Brittany eventually broke the silence.

"I know." Santana said, as a few tears trickled down her cheeks.

"Oh San, please don't cry." Brittany removed her right hand from Santana's to wipe away the droplets. "We'll always be friends… nothing could ever change that."

"I know, it's just… there are so many things going on in my head right now and… and I just don't know what to do anymore." Santana managed to say through a few light sobs.

"Just go with your heart." Brittany tried to reassure her, not realizing that most of these 'things' that were in Santana's head, were actually thoughts and feelings about her.

"I wish I could… I really wish I could." Santana mumbled under her breath, not loud enough for Brittany to hear. So she just nodded at her best friend instead.

They stood there for a few more moments, as Brittany continued to wipe away each tear that Santana shed, before her eyes were left dry. Once she realized Santana was finished, she took her hand again and bent down slightly to get a good look at her eyes.

"There." Brittany once again broke the silence. "Do you need a ride home?" She asked gently.

"No, it's okay. My car's just over there." Santana pointed over towards the high-end car her father had bought her for her seventeenth birthday.

"Alright… well we should both get going then." Brittany made sure Santana was okay with that, before continuing. "I'll see you on Monday?"

"Yeah." Santana answered, giving her a few nods.

"Okay, I'll see you then." Brittany gave her best friend another hug, before saying goodbye and turning back towards her car.

Santana turned away as well and took a few steps before she heard her best friend say something and turned around at the sound.

"You're the best friend anyone could ever ask for." Brittany said, peaking out from the side of her car.

"You too." Santana replied, not knowing what else to say, she just gave her a sweet smile and turned back to the direction she was walking before.

She should've appreciated what Brittany said and of course it meant something to her, but she couldn't help but wish there had been a four-letter word attached to the beginning of "friend".

The best girlfriend is what she wanted to be, but with Artie still there, she had little to no chance.


	2. Take A Bruise, I Know You're Worth It

Santana knew she shouldn't have said anything. At least not anything too drastic or volatile, but, with the exception of Karofsky, it'd been a while since she'd called anyone out on their… _unfortunate_ traits. So it was time to dig up last year's extremely rude Santana and let it be known that she's still got it.

"Hold up, could we all just get real here for a second?" With that, they all turned their attention to the fiery Latina sitting in the back corner.

"I hear that Rachel's got a bit of a schnozz. I mean, I wouldn't know because like Medusa, I try to avoid eye contact with her." Why Santana actually listened to the ancient Greece lesson in history class, she'd never know.

"But can we all just stop lying about how there aren't things that we wouldn't change about ourselves?" Boob job aside, Santana actually loved how she looked. Decent height, not a twig, muscular but not jacked, nice complexion and of course, her lips were incredible. So this whole 'things we wish we could change about ourselves' was clearly more than skin deep for her.

"I mean, I'm sure Sam's been at the doctor's office and rifled through pamphlets on mouth reduction." That was an easy one, considering she'd written and performed a song about those giant things.

"I'll bet Artie's thought about getting his legs removed, since he's not really using them anyways." After their little conversation the other day, Santana still felt at ease insulting the kid. In fact, his glare towards her did nothing but boost her confidence. The look the beautiful blonde girl next to him gave her did exactly the opposite. So her next insult was just crude.

"And I'm definitely sure that Tina's looked into getting an eye de-slanting."

"That's extraordinarily racist." Tina shot back.

Santana knew she was right and actually felt quite a bit of remorse about the comment, but felt she had to keep her stone cold front. "I'm keeping it real."

Finn tried to defend everyone, in saying that he was a bad dancer, but that he liked how he looks. Santana wasn't having it. She had of course seen him in the buff, so this next tidbit of information was a bit on the disturbing side and she knew it.

"Oh please! You have weird, puffy, pyramid nipples. They look like they're filled with custard." If that part didn't make you vomit a little in your mouth, the next part would be sure to make you see your last meal for a second time. "You could dust them with powdered sugar and they could pass for some sort of dessert."

'Well that shut them all up.' Santana thought to herself.

"Look, maybe Rachel's fine with having an enormous beak. Maybe she needs it to crack hard seeds. All I'm saying is that if you look in the mirror and you don't like what you see… you should change it." She was expecting some retort about how she was just insecure and that's why she got a boob job over the summer, but nothing. None of the other students said a thing. 'Yeah, I've still got it.' She thought, trying to hold back a smile.

The next day Santana had a plan. A plan to get Brittany back. If only she could find the missing piece to put it all together.

Sure, she had Sam, but he didn't have the heat at this school yet. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him, all six foot-whatever. Karofsky. He could be that missing piece; she just needed to find a way to make him play along.

Then it happened, Sam bent over to drink from the water fountain and Dave totally checked out his ass.

'Holy crap, I'm a closet lesbian and a judgmental bitch, which means one thing… I have awesome gaydar.' Santana thought to herself, this might be easier than she'd expected.

Kurt, Blaine, Tina and Mercedes were blabbing on about meaningless stuff. Santana didn't even bother to listen to them or even pay attention at all. Brittany and that thing were sitting at another table, being all cutesy and shit. She nearly vomited at the image.

"I told him I would be all for it if it wasn't for Karofsky." Well that sure caught her attention.

From the look on Santana's face, you would almost think someone just told her Breadstix was no longer serving breadsticks. "Wait, what did you just say?"

"Well, Kurt needs to be safe." Blaine reiterated.

"Okay, can we please change the subject?"

The look on Kurt's face made Santana think back to the night of the benefit. "Real brave with your fists, but you're a coward when it comes to the truth." The scene replayed I her mind, if she wasn't sure before, she was now.

'Kurt's the trick to winning prom queen and getting Brit. Not to mention totally boosting our chances at Nationals. If I could get Kurt back, I'd be a hero. Even Quinn and Finn would vote for me. And the key… Karofsky.'

"I've gotta gay. Go! Go. I've gotta go." Real smooth she thought to herself. Who cares, she knew what she needed to set her plan in motion and he had to say yes with all of the dirt she had on him.

Despite her insult lead speech about changing things you don't like about yourself, Mr. Schuester didn't seem to agree with her. So the next day he returned, Ms. Pillsbury in hand, with their next assignment.

**ACCEPTANCE**

"We're gonna do a group number by the queen of self love… Gaga. We're going to perform her anthem to acceptance, Born This Way." Mr. Schuester announced to the group. Santana couldn't help being excited about the prospect of performing that song, she loved it.

Then Ms. Pillsbury had to go and ruin it. "Each of you will be issued a beautifully fitted white T-shirt. We will then use this letter press to write a word or a phrase that best describes the thing about you that you're the most ashamed of or you'd like to change, but you can't because you were born that way."

'Great. Just freaking great.' Santana said to herself. Maybe this wouldn't be so much fun.

Santana wasn't about to beat around the bush, so she got straight to the point. "Look, give it up. I know."

"Know what?" Dave returned with the slyest of grins.

"That you're gay." Santana answered loud enough that anyone within a few metres could've heard.

"What?" His expression changed immediately. "Who told you that?" He started to physically retreat.

"No one had to tell me." Santana could sense how scared he was, so she knew she'd come to the right assumption. "First of all, I saw you checking out Sam's ass the other day. You know, you really need to be more careful with your leering."

"I didn't. I was just seeing what jeans he was wearing."

"Like that's any less gay… Second of all, I know about you and Kurt." She leaned in closer, almost trying to keep this just between them. "Remember last week before the benefit? About you being worried about the 'truth getting out'?" She even threw in some air quotes for fun. "Guess what? It's out."

Deny, deny, deny. She knew that'd be the first thing he did, so she quickly jumped into a little story from 'Aunty Tanny'.

"Why are you doing this?" He wasn't denying anything after she went into detail about what his future would most likely hold.

"Because I need you… and you need me."

Santana contemplated saying the next part. She knew he wouldn't tell, especially since she could easily turn around and do the same thing to him. So she said it. "We play on the same team." She was out to two people now. It was pretty easy to keep track of such a small number.

"You're…"

"Look, I'm not ready to start eating Jicama or get a flat top yet either… Maybe in junior college."

Dave quickly went back to his denying ways. "This is garbage… I'm not gay." He whispered the last word.

"I'm trying to help you out here… Have you ever heard of the term 'beards'?" He replied with a slightly confused look. "It's when a gay man and woman date each other to hide the face that they're gay." Santana stated, almost as a proposition. "Like the Roosevelts."

"So you and I are going to be each other's beards. Then we're gonna win prom king and queen and rule the school."

"And what if I say no?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Then I'm going to tell everyone about you and your life will be over." She knew it wasn't fair and not necessarily true, but blackmail was her only real option at this point. "The only straight I am is straight up bitch." That was definitely true. "You in or not?"

He didn't need to say anything, Santana knew she had him.

With frequent conversations within the glee club, it was fairly easy to put together an apology for him to say to them. All that she had to worry about was his delivery of said apology, which he did quite well and to finish it all off Santana joined him in front of everyone and announced their plans.

"This glee club is not complete, not without Kurt. So I've taken it upon myself to try to rehabilitate Dave. To see if maybe Kurt would consider coming back and help us win nationals. I did this for us." Santana looked around at their faces, some were confused and many shocked. This seemed really out of character for her. "And then something funny happened." It felt weird, disgusting and totally fake, but she did it anyway. She reached down to her left and took his hand in hers. "Something… called love."

She didn't care that nearly everyone's face was one of disgust, Puck looked ready to hurl and Tina even voiced her discomfort. "I'm gonna barf." Everyone that was, except Sam, who was understandably upset, as his girlfriend just dumped him and then there was Brittany. The hat sporting former cheerleader seemed… upset as well, but more disappointed than anything.

Santana couldn't even look her in the eye; they both knew her relationship with Dave was fake. Before anyone else could say anything, Dave explained the rest of their plans and told them about their new club, The Bully Whips.

No one questioned anything. The next day was a completely different story. It was the day of their Born This Way performance and everyone was to wear their custom shirts.

Brittany came semi-skipping down the hallway, clearly in a good mood. "Hey." She said walking towards Santana. "Do you like my shirt for glee club?" Unsnapping her jacket, she revealed her phrase.

**I'M WITH STOOPID**

This was different than last week; this wasn't someone insulting her intelligence and no one defending her, it was Brittany being Brittany. Not taking herself seriously wasn't uncommon, so this shirt didn't come as too much of a surprise. Besides, Santana knew Wheels had nothing to do with it, since she'd terrified him the week before.

"It's perfect." Santana was noticeably beaming at her best friend, so she broke the silence quickly. "Check out mine." She pulled apart the front of her vest to show off her shirt.

**BITCH**

Brittany was not impressed and Santana knew exactly why. Sure, on the inside she was fine with it, but saying it to the world or at least William McKinley High School that she was gay was an all-new ball game. "What? This is perfect." Trying to seem clueless, she defended her choice of slogan. "Legend has it that when I came out of my mother I told the nurse she was fat."

Brittany had a different idea. "Well…" She tilted her head to each side, as if contemplating what to say. "I made a different one for you." Unfolding the shirt in her hand, she showed it to Santana.

**LEBANESE**

"I'm Hispanic." Santana gave her a confused look, before she glanced back at the shirt, noticing how similar it was to another, more sensible word. "Wait, was that supposed to be lesbian." She looked around to make sure no one was close enough to hear her as she said the last word.

"Yeah, isn't that what it says? When you told me all that stuff the other week, it meant so much to me. To see you be so honest. Especially because I know how bad it hurt." Santana took a deep breath, she cried at her locker before; she wasn't about to do it again. "I was so proud of you."

Santana couldn't look into those crystal blue eyes any longer, so she turned back towards her locker. "Yeah, well don't get used to it… and certainly don't even think about telling anyone."

"Why not? You're like the most awesomest girl at this school. Why would you try to hide any of that?"

"I'm dating Karofsky now." That was a desperate attempt to end the conversation and they both knew it.

"It's gross." Brittany replied flatly.

"You don't get a say in who I date anymore."

"Why not, because I'm dating somebody? Because you're Lebanese and I think I'm bi-curious?" Brittany was clearly frustrated.

"No." Santana jumped in immediately. "Because I said I love you." She glanced around her surroundings yet again. "You didn't say you love me back."

Brittany remembered the conversation like it was yesterday and knew she'd said she loved her. "I do love you. Clearly you don't love you as much as I do or you'd put the shirt on and you would dance with me." She placed the shirt in Santana's arms and walked away. Leaving her there to think about what just happened.

Maybe they couldn't be best friends after all.

She did it, she put the shirt on, and she didn't even bother to cover it up. It's not like most of the students would understand it anyway, they'd probably think it's a new brand name or something.

It was just a matter of getting up on that stage and performing with them. She knew the steps, the lyrics, everything. She was so close.

"Man up, you can do this." She said to her reflection in the bathroom mirror. "You're Santana -freaking- Lopez, people bow to your presence." This wasn't working, she knew it wasn't.

"I can't do this." She covered her face with her shaking hands. "I can't do this." She said again, anxiety kicking in full force.

"Everyone will find out. They'll judge me, call me names, push me against lockers, slushy me…" She trailed off as a few tears trickled from her eyes, onto her hands. "I'll be threatened and forced to go to a private school… away from Brittany." The tears just wouldn't stop and every time she'd try to wipe them away, her cheeks turned even redder. "I can't do that to her." She added before taking a deep breath. "I'm doing this for her… us." She tried to convince herself. "I'm staying in the closet."

Santana forced herself to stop crying, removed her hands from her face and filled them with water to clean off her face and remove the evidence of these few moments. It made it worse. Her cheeks were no longer red, but they were now covered in her eye makeup, which had washed its way down.

"Dammit." She said under her breath, as she reached down and grabbed the first thing she could to wipe her face. After completely removing the makeup, she realized what she'd grabbed. Her '**BITCH**' T-shirt.

It was wet and covered in the remnants of her previous makeup job.

"UGH!" She exclaimed as she threw it into the trashcan. She knew she couldn't wear it; she'd have been lucky if it'd come out of the dryer looking decent if she washed it at home. So she threw it out instead.

She looked back at the mirror and crossed her arms covering the letters on her chest. "This'll have to do." She walked out of the bathroom, not moving her arms at all.

She decided to sit out for the dance -mainly because her eyes were still bloodshot and she couldn't move her arms- and joined her 'boyfriend' at the top of the auditorium's seats.

Everyone was living it up, except for Santana and Dave. The -repressed- couple just sat there, taking in the song, the dance moves and the look of fulfillment on their classmate's faces.

Santana looked down at her shirt, she wanted to get up there and she knew she should. Her glee club friends weren't the type to judge. When Quinn got pregnant, they supported her. When Artie was singled out for being different, they came together and supported him. When Kurt was so openly gay, they supported and accepted him.

That's all Santana wanted… acceptance.

**A/N: I'll be the first to admit it, this is not a very good chapter. With the exception of the last two parts, it's all based from the episode, so nothing really happens in this other than you reading what I say goes on within the person who is speaking. (If that makes any sense)**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and thanks to those who reviewed the first chapter. It means a lot.**

**Oh and sorry about not posting after the episode aired. I hadn't made a video in a while, so I decided to focus on that and then I found it hard to write for a bit, but nonetheless here is another chapter.**


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